Thousands of new Epstein-linked documents released

At least 8,000 new documents related to the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were available today on the US Department of Justice's website.

The DOJ has been accused of withholding information and was criticised by Democrats over the slow release and heavy redaction of records from the investigation into Epstein.

The new files include hundreds of videos or audio recordings, notably surveillance footage from August 2019, the month Epstein was found dead in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The new trove of documents on Tuesday included an email from a prosecutor indicating President Trump had travelled aboard his private jet "many moretimes than previously has been reported".

The latest release includes around 30,000 pages of documents, ‍with many redactions, and dozens of video clips, including several purporting to be shot inside a federal detention center.

Epstein was found dead in 2019 in a New York jail. His death was ruled a suicide.

Flight records show Trump travelled on Epstein jet eight times in 1990s

In one of those emails, dated 7 January 2020, an unidentified prosecutor in New York wrote that flight records showed Mr Trump had flown on Epstein's private jet eight times during the 1990s, which was more than investigators then were aware of.

Among those were "at least four flights" on which Ghislaine Maxwell was also aboard. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

On one flight, the only three passengers were Epstein, Mr Trump and a 20-year-old woman whose name was redacted.

"On two other flights, two of the passengers, respectively, were women who would be possible witnesses in a Maxwell case," the document stated.

The White House did not immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment on the email regarding Mr Trump's alleged flights with Epstein in the 1990s.

In another email, an unidentified person wrote in 2021 that they had recently been looking ⁠through data the government obtained from Steve Bannon's cellphone and found an "image of Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell".

The government redacted the photo.

Trump downplays importance of ‍Epstein files

The Department of Justice posted a statement on X saying: "Some of these documents contain untrue ⁠and ‍sensationalist claims made against ⁠President Trump that were submitted to theFBI right before the 2020 election.

"To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have ‍been weaponized against President Trump already.

"Nevertheless, out of our commitment to the law and transparency, the DOJ is releasing these ⁠documents with the legally required protections for Epstein's victims."

The latest material comes a few days after the Trump administration published a large cache of Epstein files in an attempt to comply with a new law forcing disclosure on the politically fraught topic.

However, the releases on Friday and Saturday contained extensive redactions, angering some Republicans and doing little to defuse a scandal threatening the party ahead of 2026 midterm elections.

Yesterday, Mr Trump downplayed the importance of ‍the Epstein files. Speaking to reporters, he said the material was "just used to deflect against tremendous success" by him and his fellow Republicans.

The new transparency law, overwhelmingly passed by Congress last month, mandated the disclosure of all Epstein files, despite ⁠Trump's months-long effort to keep them sealed.

The latest release comes after US President Donald Trump said that people who "innocently met" Epstein in the past risked having their reputations ruined by the release of the investigative files.

Mr Trump, in his first comments since the US Justice Department began releasing the files last Friday, also dismissed the furore over Epstein as a distraction from his party's achievements.

"This whole thing with Epstein is a way of trying to deflect from the tremendous success that the Republican Party has," he told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago home yesterday.

Former president Bill Clinton featured prominently in the first batch of photos from the Epstein files released by the Justice Department and Mr Trump was asked for his reaction.

"I like Bill Clinton. I've always gotten along with Bill Clinton. I hate to see photos come out of him," he said.

"There's photos of me too," Mr Trump noted. "Everybody was friendly with this guy (Epstein)."

Mr Trump said he did not like the release of pictures of Mr Clinton and others, calling it a "terrible thing".

"Bill Clinton's a big boy, he can handle it," he said.

"But you probably have pictures being exposed of other people that innocently met Jeffrey Epstein years ago, many years ago, and they're highly respected bankers and lawyers and others."

The Republican president said a "lot of people are very angry that pictures are being released of other people that really had nothing to do with Epstein".

"But they're in a picture with him because he was at a party and you ruin a reputation of somebody," he said.

Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected financier, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in what was ruled a suicide.

The saga over the Epstein files, which has been dragging on for years, has caused a rift within the Republican Party, with MAGA supporters, who make up President Trump's core voters, clamouring for full disclosure of Epstein documents.

Mr Trump has at times called the episode a Democratic "hoax," but has also signed into law a bill requiring the full disclosure.

Bipartisan anger over the US Department of Justice's slow release of Epstein documents has grown as lawmakers threatened to launch an effort to hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt of Congress and former President Bill Clinton sought the immediate release of any documents involving him.

"The DOJ needs to quit protecting the rich, powerful, and politically connected," Representative Thomas Massie, a maverick conservative Republican from Kentucky, said in a posting on X.

Earlier, Clinton spokesman Angel Urena issued a statement urging Ms Bondi to immediately release any remaining materials in the Epstein case that refer to Mr Clinton in any way ,including photographs.

"Someone or something is being protected. We do not know whom, what or why. But we do know this," Mr Urena said, adding, "We need no ⁠such protection."

Mr Urena said there is "widespread suspicion" the Justice Department is "using selective releases to imply wrongdoing about individuals who have already been repeatedly cleared by the very same Department of Justice."

He did not detail who else harboured that suspicion.

Massie and liberal Democratic Representative Ro ⁠Khanna of California said they are working together, along with other unnamed politicians, on an effort to dislodge documents surrounding investigations of Epstein.

The two politicians said in an interview on MS Now that if necessary they would seek contempt of Congress charges in the House of Representatives for Ms Bondi next ⁠month.

They ‍said that if their demands ⁠were not met following a "30-day grace period," they would work to have Congress seek fines of up to $5,000 (€4,250) per day until the documents are dispatched.

Meanwhile, a group identifying itself as survivors of abuse by Epstein complained in a statement that the public so far has received "a fraction of the files" and that those were "riddled with abnormal and extreme redactions with no explanation."

They added that some victim identities were left unredacted.

The ⁠Justice Department has said it is working to clear more documents for release to Congress.